I’m white. Growing up in New York City and going to public school, I was aware of this fact because I grew up with people who were not white. Among us kids, it was a fact that was acknowledged and if not discussed, not ignored. No one pretended “not to see color”. We knew that this was a part of our identity and was probably connected to a bunch of other factors like class, money, and privilege, even if we couldn’t quite articulate that. As I get older, I realize that this is an experience not many white people have had. I’m speaking from an American perspective, but it’s also true here in Europe, which is intensely racially homogeneous compared to the way I grew up. For many of my fellow whites, being white is just “normal” and everyone else needs to add a special classification to specify their race.
Whiteness, or race in general is of course a fabrication, a construct. This does not mean it isn’t real today, and something that we have to live with. It was constructed as part of the ideology of white supremacy, a moral justification for the crimes of slavery and colonialism. It was important for our white ancestors to believe that what they were doing was for the sake of civilization, or Christendom or “the greater good”. White supremacy and the dehumanization of people of color was a critically useful justification for why all the rape, theft and murder was in fact not evil, but civilized and good in their eyes. It was also a tactical maneuver to divide the working class against itself, which was successful.
pic.twitter.com/d0JAzRxQnT— CIA (@CIA) January 21, 2019
The hilariously hypocritical lionization of Dr. Martin Luther King in the US by organizations like the FBI, CIA and NRA is an example of the hasty shoving of this history into the oubliette of memory. The CIA posting a graphic with an MLK quote on it’s Twitter page is an example of the desire to say by whites: “We’ve moved on. Everything is fine now. Let’s not discuss it any further.” It exhibits a breathtaking, brazen hypocrisy that only the powerfully shameless are truly capable of. But of course, as we can see in a myriad of ways, from the killing of black children by police, the incarceration of Mexican children at the border or indeed the entire Trump administration, things are not in fact fine, and we have not in fact moved on.
Today, the FBI honors the Rev. Martin L. King Jr. and his incredible career fighting for civil rights. #MLKDAY pic.twitter.com/9UEulHmL8a— FBI (@FBI) January 16, 2017
The FBI of course attempted to blackmail Dr. King to commit suicide, a matter of historical record. Malcolm X spoke eloquently about white guilt, about the knowledge that whites had behaved in depraved and savage ways towards their black fellow citizens, and the anxiety that that has engendered. The knowledge that whites have done terrible things which have not been paid for is a source of terrible anxiety. In fact I would argue that it is probably fairly central to the current epidemic of militarized police violence against black people in the US. Whites know that white supremacy is wrong, and has been wrong and that we are trapped living in a country with people who we have wronged for years. There is a debt of terrible, terrible violence outstanding. This leads to powerful white guilt and white fear, which lead in turn to further perpetuation of violence against people of color, particularly black people.
I believe that the next step for us as a white community, is to try to bring some of this into the open among ourselves, and to acknowledge it. Are we ourselves individually responsible for the sins of our ancestors? I don’t know, and I don’t know if it’s even worth trying to answer. But we can agree that we have inherited a scorched and poisoned landscape in which we must try to live, grow and be human. In order to regenerate this landscape, we need to try to heal both ourselves and those who have been wronged. The work of healing the wounds of white supremacy should not lie in the hands of it’s perpetual victims, people of color. It may not even be helpful or fair to ask them to participate at this stage. Instead I believe that it is possible for us to make more progress among ourselves, from one white person to another, raising and discussing these issues, ideally in a compassionate and open way.
The term ‘racist’ has become an epithet, a label to be hurled at people, a conversation-ender. I think it’s important for us as whites to think not in terms of racism as a state of being, but as a label which can be applied to beliefs and actions. It is imminently possible for a well-meaning white person to say or do something which stems from unconscious racial bias or has harmful racial consequences, without them being a died in the wool intentionally evil racist. Being able to have the discussion of: “hey, saying that sounds a bit racist or biased” among whites is important. Importantly, the more often we do it, the more it will become normalized and the more it can be seen as a healthy corrective piece of feedback, rather than a condemnation of who we fundamentally are. Labeling one another as racist or playing gotcha or ‘cancelled’ is not going to lead us down a path of healing and reconciliation. Instead we need to develop a dialog which allows us to take ownership and responsibility for our share of this problem, and find ways to identify beliefs and actions which can be changed.
I think it’s almost more likely that these conversations can happen more productively among groups of white people in a process of self-examination than they can in discussion with people of color where the stakes may feel higher because the consequences of being wrong may be more harmful. I think of this as us taking responsibility for our own personal whiteness and our inherited place in history, and how it affects our beliefs and actions. I don’t think any individual can take on the guilt of the massive history of white crime and genocide, and I don’t think it’s necessarily helpful. Instead I think we need to take responsibility among our friends and in our families and communities to try to start the local process of dismantling this poisonous system of white supremacy that has done the world so much harm.
